Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told
reporters on Thursday that the Obama administration's continued pursuing
of diplomatic solutions in Syria has put military planners in the
Pentagon in a strategic bind.

Complaining of a "lack of
focus," he declared that, with a clear instruction for regime change, "I
can build you a plan, and I know how many divisions, I know how many air
wings ... it takes."

This is the second time that Dempsey has
gone on record to threaten military action. Speaking following the
alleged May 25 massacre of over 1,000 people at Houla, he went on Fox
News to declare, "Of course, there is always a military option ... it may
come to a point with Syria because of the atrocities."

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The Houla
massacre was immediately blamed on the regime of Bashar al-Assad and
attributed to shelling by his troops. Within days, however,
investigations proved that most deaths had been the result of summary
executions by shots at close range and stabbings. Opposition forces
blamed pro-government Alawite Shabihi militia, while the government
blamed terrorists associated with the Sunni insurgency seeking to
destabilise the United Nations ceasefire on the eve of a visit to Syria
by Kofi Annan.

Once again, Dempsey utilized an alleged massacre
as a platform for his warmongering -- joining a Republican lobby led by
Senator John McCain and Senator Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat, urging
the direct arming of the Syrian opposition and US air support.

The
massacre this time is reported to have taken place in the village of
Qubair, 20 kilometres from Hama, on Wednesday. But such details as are
available are even murkier and more open to question than was Houla.
Initial reports spoke of anywhere between 87 and 100 dead, over half
women and children. It was supposed to have followed the same pattern as
Houla -- heavy shelling preceding an attack by Shabiha militia.

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This
casualty figure has since been revised down to "at least 55 people,"
according to the pro-opposition UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights. The victims are, it said, mostly from the same Al-Yateem family,
including 18 women and children.

Footage purportedly from
Mazraat al-Qubeir showed the bodies of what the cameraman states are a
dozen women and children, as well as the remains of burned corpses. An
anonymous activist claims that the bodies of between 25 and 30 men were
taken away by the killers.

The Syrian government has again
rejected such accounts, putting the death toll in the town at nine and
blaming terrorist groups seeking to promote military intervention on the
eve of Thursday's report to the UN General Assembly by Kofi Annan, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby. This
report is to be followed by a closed-door briefing of the UN Security
Council.

At the general assembly, Syria's permanent
representative, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, said that the massacre was
committed five hours before any clashes happened, and that the images
broadcast by Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya were not those of massacre
victims. "The instigative media channels have taken to airing such
fabrications before the UN Security Council meetings," he said.

Al-Jaafari
said that local people had affirmed that the gunmen who committed the
crime came from another nearby village. "What is taking place in some
parts of Syria is an unjustifiable heinous massacre, but countries
supporting terrorists and facilitating their crimes in Syria are
complicit in the bloodshed," he said. "Are suicide bombings that
targeted Syria acts in self-defence? Are attacks on hospitals, medical
staffs and schools democratic aspects?"

Dempsey's chivvying of
the Obama administration does not reflect a fundamental difference over
strategy between the Pentagon and the While House. Obama is as much a
blood-soaked war criminal as Dempsey. The administration wants regime
change in Syria, achieved first by destabilization and then possibly
some form of proxy war waged by its allies, the Gulf monarchies and
Turkey. But it has to confront and neutralize the opposition of Russia,
China, India and other states.

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At the UN, Annan declared that his
own peace plan "is not being implemented." He told the Security Council
that it was time to threaten "consequences" if Assad did not halt the
strife, stating to reporters that other actions must be considered, "if
the plan is not working, or if we decide it's not the way to go."

Ban
Ki-moon joined in blaming the Assad regime. "For many months, it has
been evident that President Assad and his government have lost all
legitimacy," he said. "The trail of blood leads back to those
responsible."

As the UN met, in Washington US Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner was hosting a meeting of representatives from 55
countries, with the aim of imposing additional punitive sanctions that
would force the Syrian business elite to abandon the Assad regime.
"Strong sanctions make clear to the Syrian business community and other
supporters of the regime that their future is bleak so long as the Assad
regime remains in power," he said.

Chris Marsden's work can be found on wsws.org, a website dedicated to global awareness of socialist issues & which serves as the forum for the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI).